Ruby Helen Raine

Now that we're all home, safe & sound, I thought I would take a few minutes and update the blog with Ruby's birth story.

As most of you loyal readers knew, we were scheduled for a c-section at 9am on Friday, March 18. Our plan was to drop off the kids at daycare and get to the hospital for 8am, and have a baby!

On the 17th, Talia had an early appointment at Children's Hospital and then I had to go to St. Boniface to do my pre-op registration and bloodwork. Since nobody had actually told us what time we were supposed to be there the next morning, we had made our plan based on what we remembered from our previous c-section experience, so I thought I should run up to L&D and just double-check with them re: what time we should be there. They told me I had to be there by 7am, so then we had a mad scramble to try and figure out what we would do with the kids - that was too early for the daycare.

Fortunately we were able to catch Grandma & Grandpa Raine before they left for their mini-vacation and they agreed to come in that night so they would be able to look after the kids in the morning. We had a nice supper together, put the kids to bed, did some last-minute stuff (like finished packing the hospital bag, ha ha) and headed off to bed, excited to meet our new little one in the morning.

Around 3am I woke up in a puddle. Assuming my water had broken, I went to the bathroom and was instantly panicked to realize it was not my water, but blood. I was having heavy bleeding, clots, and lots of weird pain so I woke up Raine, we quickly got things together, let G & G know what was going on, and headed off to the hospital. Having never gone into labour on my own, and only having had my water break once, I had no idea what was going on but I was pretty sure this wasn't the way things were supposed to start!

We got to the hospital sometime between 4 and 4:30, and had to wait a few minutes until they got a bed ready in triage. (Did I mention it was the Supermoon this weekend? The hospital was crazy busy and they actually ended up turning women away.) They hooked me up to the monitors and since I hadn't felt the baby move at all since waking up, I was instantly relieved when they found the heartbeat right away..... until they said they didn't know if that was the baby or if that was me. My heart sank. By this time my doctor had just run in, and she proceeded to break my water and put in an internal monitor on the baby's head. The good news was this monitor definitely picked up the baby; the bad news was that the baby's heartrate dipped below 80. They watched the monitor for about 10 seconds and then everyone started running. We practically flew down the hall to the OR, even Rainer with his long legs had to run to keep up.

While we were en route to the OR, the doctors verified with me that they had my permission to give me blood products (!) and told me that they would look at the baby's heartrate once we got to the OR, and if it was still low they would have to put me to sleep because there would not be time for a spinal - and if they had to put me out, Rainer wouldn't be allowed in the room. I have to say, the doctors and nurses had been excellent at making it seem like there wasn't a huge problem UNTIL they started tossing around phrases that included "life or death" while running as fast as they could down the hallway.

Anyway, once we got to the OR, the baby's heartrate had come back up a little, so they decided they had time for the spinal. So at least I was awake for the surgery, and Rainer was allowed to come in after all. They had just barely opened me up when they exclaimed over the amount of hair (not a surprise based on my raging heartburn,) they then commented on the size of the baby's head (I was glad I didn't have to push it out, ha ha) and then my doctor squealed "This is an ENORMOUS baby for Trina!" and I started to laugh. Then my doctor pulled out the baby and said "You got your Ruby!" - we were really surprised because we had been so sure we were having a boy!

The nurse that carried her to the warming table said "Oh yeah, this baby's a 9 pounder!" but as it turns out, Ruby was just under that at 8lbs, 12 ounces. Almost a full 2 lbs bigger than Talia & Declan. No wonder it felt like that baby was wearing me like a suit this entire last month!

When they delivered the placenta, they found that I'd had 2 abruptions - places where the placenta was tearing away from the uterus - one was the one that had been the cause of the bleeding, the other was older, higher, and had healed without anyone realizing it was there. There was also an area of calcification, which entertained Rainer to no end, since I primarily live on skim milk and Tums while pregnant, and we always joke that our babies will be born in a shell with a full set of tusks.

They had to do a little repair work, I had lost a lot of blood before the surgery & during, they had pulled a baby 2lbs heavier than last time through an incision the same size as last time, and they had been in a rush to get Ruby out, so they didn't have a lot of time to be gentle. As a result, this recovery has been way more painful and slow than my previous 2. Really, when people tell me they're afraid of c-sections, I've always told them that my sections were no big deal. And they weren't! I was up and around the next morning, feeling great, able to entertain visitors and get back to normal right away. This one has been very different. Besides the harder delivery, I also seem to be a little bruised and battered on the inside from Ruby the Brute, so I've been having some bad pain from that. But I'm so glad she's here, safe & sound, I would do it all again even if the pain was a million times worse.

Ruby has settled in just fine, she sort of looks like her brother but also has the hair, colouring, forehead, and mouth of her big sister. It will be interesting to see how her looks develop, but right now it seems like she will look a lot like Talia, with bigger cheeks like Declan. She is a great little nurser and sleeps like a champ, her first night home she gave us 4.5 hour stretches during the night!!!

This experience has made me question if my body is really meant to birth babies, though. I'm pretty sick all the way through the pregnancy, although that is mostly just nausea/barfing and nothing serious. But when it comes time to actually have the baby...... the first time my water broke and more than 24 hours later, my body still was doing nothing to get that baby out. I ended up being induced, which ultimately resulted in an emergency c-section (although not as much of an emergency as this time.) The second time, I had a planned c-section - while on bedrest for pre-eclampsia. And this last time was the biggest and scariest surprise yet. I'm beginning to think the Raine Family hockey team just isn't realistic. That makes me so sad, but insanely grateful for the 3 little monkeys we already have.

Rainer's parents were here to look after the kids while we were in the hospital, and now my parents are here for a week. I'm taking it easy and adjusting to life with 3 kiddies under 3 years old!

Yaliddle Boy

Generally speaking, my kids eat really healthy foods. Lots of veggies & fruit, lean meats, low-fat cheese, yogurt, whole grains, all that stuff. They rarely even have juice (except for daycare/playgroup/Grandma's house) and Talia will often ask for a treat, nibble on it, then ask for a yogurt instead. We try not to make a big deal about food, but both kids are big eaters and so far they are good eaters, so we just try to give them food that has nutritional value. It's not a big deal, you don't have to feel sorry for them (Grampy) or bring them lots of junk food when you come to visit (Grammie); they do have treats sometimes and are not deprived in any way.

Now that that's all cleared up, the other background information you need to know so the upcoming story makes more sense is that we have a big entranceway in our house, aka "the porch." There is a heater in there, but we don't turn it on so that in the winter the porch is like a giant walk-in fridge. We keep drinks out there as well as bigger pantry items we don't have room for in our space-challenged kitchen.

The other day I picked up the kids from daycare and while I was getting Declan out of his giant snowsuit, boots, the whole bit (don't you just love -40 weather, by the way?) Talia was out in the porch getting herself undressed. It takes a little while, but Miss Independent gets the job done eventually, and it is a life skill she needs to master, so whatever. This day it was taking a really, really long time, though, so I went out to see what the hold up was, and I could hear her talking to someone:

"You silly yaliddle boy! What are you doing? You waiting for me? In da porch? You so silly, you yaliddle boy!"

I had no idea if we'd picked up an extra kid from daycare or what, but when I got to the porch, she was sitting on the floor, talking to a box of Rice Krispies. I'd picked up some Rice Krispies to make edible wooden blocks for Declan's birthday cake back before we all got the plague, didn't end up using them, and since they're not something we generally eat, they hadn't found their way into the cereal rotation. Talia apparently took an instant liking to the one in red (I believe he's "Pop?") and was having a great time chatting away with the yaliddle boy. She's now eaten almost the entire box, because I think it's so hilarious when she asks for "some of dat yaliddle boy."

Speaking of yaliddle boys, check this one out:

Part of me is sad that we hardly got any shots that look like the real Declan we see all the time (scrunched up nose, giant grin, mid-belly laugh) but part of me loves how these pictures scream "I'm tolerating being 1 - but it's no 11 months, let me tell you."